It Happened in Arizona

It Happened In...

by James A. Crutchfield

Read about overland explorers, Geronimo and the Apache warriors, Buffalo soldiers, and many more.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

James A. Crutchfield is the author of many books on United States history, including Tragedy at Taos: the Revolt of 1847, Eyewitness to American History, and Legends of the Wild West. His contributions to a variety of newspapers and nationally distributed magazines and journals number in the hundreds. He has been awarded the Spur Award from Western Writers of America and is a two-time award recipient from the American Association for State and Local History.

A native-born Tennessean whose direct ancestors were among the first settlers of Nashville in the 1780s, he has most often turned his probing eye toward their stories. But his writing career has spanned the entire continent, from the days of George Washington and the American fur trade to the Army of the West and the histories of such Western states as Montana, New Mexico and Arizona as part of his It Happened in… book series.

Reviews

[G.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like a July morning walk in Phoenix-seems like a good idea in the moment, you choose to ignore the warning signs, maybe the walk even starts out pleasant, but sooner-rather-than later, the reality smacks you in the face. "This is lame. I'm hurting here." Sure, you can turn around and go back and mitigate the damage but it's too late. You're already burnt, dehydrated, and spent. Any hope of a satisfying outcome has evaporated. What seemed promising has turned into a dud. It'll take all day to recover.

My best guess is by page 30 of this book, all of the above happens to my fellow reading friends.

[Lorraine Haataia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got halfway through the book and stopped reading. I normally don't read history, so I'm not the best judge of how this stands up to other similar books. I only read it because someone in my book club selected it. I read enough to take part in the book club discussion, but wasn't interested enough to read it in its entirety. I imagine that the author spent a lot of time and effort researching the stories. I'm glad that I learned some things about Arizona history, but I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone, unless they were specifically interested in the topic.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small tidbits and a quick read if all that you want is an brief overview of the state's history.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting if you enjoy history.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tidbits worth perusing. Arizona history, all good.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book I've been looking for to use for Arizona history with my second-grader (Charlotte Mason Form 1A) next year. It covers Arizona history from the building of the Hohokam canals c. 1200 up to Barry Goldwater in 34 short, 2-3 page episodes. The writing is decent, and the shortness of each story keeps it snappy; the author does an excellent job pulling out relevant bits of primary source material--an eyewitness account of Coronado's visit to Grand Canyon, Geronimo's words of surrender, a statement sworn out by a man shot by Billy the Kid (where the author helpfully censors the phrase s__ of a b___; may do a bit more editing there).

I may not use every chapter. There are two chapters leading up to the Gadsden Purchase that basically describe how boring it was for the U.S. Corp of Topographical Engineers to explore northern Arizona. And indeed, I was bored too.

I plan to also use Betty Baker's Strangers and Settlers and selections from Famous Indian Chiefs I Have Known by O.O. Howard. Still looking for a good book on Coronado.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading the third edition it strikes the reader that not much of interest has really ever happened in Arizona. Each episode is only a page or two long so you get only a slight snippet of each story. This is fine on very unimportant episodes in history, but on things that a person would like to know more about it’s frustrating. Then inexplicably, it seems to focus on things that a modern reader would really have very little interest in, like the building of a resort in 1929 (6 pages worth) compared to Billy the Kid (3 pages) or OK Corral (2 1/2 pages). All in all it’s a deeply unsatisfying read.